In the Entertainment industry, most show promoters become totally reliant on their ticketing service providers (eg Ticketek, TicketMaster) to manage their customer data and run direct marketing programmes for them. These off-the-shelf solutions usually leave the promoter little opportunity to customise data-driven marketing programmes of their own.

But NZ Cricket was determined to take control and turn data into a competitive advantage in the entertainment market. They pulled off a classic “zero to hero” manoeuvre in just 6 short months. In August 2013 they had no fan database, no access to transactional data, no history of direct marketing and total reliance on expensive mainstream media driving anonymous walk-up ticket sales. By February 2014 they had a marketing database of 50,000 fans, including 25,000 highly engaged Priority Ticketing members, with daily tracking of ticket purchases and digital interactions, and a fully automated email contact programme to drive sales

The new BLACKCAPS Priority Ticketing service helped NZ Cricket exceed its overall ticket sales target for 2013/14. But more importantly, by dramatically increasing the proportion of trackable online pre-sales, it built a solid foundation for future seasons as well. For an investment of just $100k, the BLACKCAPS have found a way to make data-driven marketing pay.